Stewards - what are they smoking?

[Sunday Silence]

7th race at Calder today. 5 horse ducks in and takes out 3 runners to the inside, then comes back out and takes the rest of them. 6 horse gets slammed and loses rider, 7 horse takes up. 7 horse loses 2nd by a half. See the inquiry go up and after seeing the head on would have bet my life that this is the quickest DQ in history. 5 had to be moved to last. Glad I didn't. Official sign went up within a minute. Left him in 2nd. Just horrible.

[Hoofless_Wonder]

Agree that the official was way too quick. Looking at the replay, it looked like the chain reaction of bumps could have taken 15 minutes to sort out, so the stewards must have just decided to pass on their responsibility.

Full disclosure - had a small bet on the 6 horse who lost his jockey....

[OTM Al]

This was a two year old race. They frequently pinball out of the gates. After looking at the headlong, they probably could have found reasons to dq half the field. This is why, like it or not, a lot more latitude is given on the starts of such races.

[Sunday Silence]

Usually you do give a bit more latitude to 2 year old's, especially out of the gate. But this was a no brainer. 1 horse (the 5) did all the damage, and caused a horse to go down to boot. Easy DQ to last.